There was a time when a dance artist of any stature would have a hard time being seen as anything other than a singles artist.
This was because for much of dance music's history the industry has been convinced that dance albums don't sell.
So, if nothing else, this album can be seen as a testament to how far dance music has progressed in the once uncomprehending eyes of the music industry.
Darude, who's 'Sandstorm' was the sound of San An last year, would by normal standards have only entered the long player world as, lucrative, compilation fodder.
But Neo have broken the rules and pushed Darude, aka Ville Viirtanen, into the realms of album artist.
Anyone familiar with 'Standstorm' (the chances are you won't have been able to escape it) will be able to predict how the majority of these tracks sound. Splintering synthesiser rushes four four beats while euphoric keyboard washes under shimmering melody lines.
But there are surprises. 'Touch Me', for example, drops the straight kick drum to the floor in favour of a break beat pattern. This transpires to be a neat little trick to divide the album in two. The first half kicking-off with 'Sandstrom' and ending with 'Touch Me', while the second follows the calm of 'Touch Me' with the churning beats of 'Before The Storm'.
One of the album's stand-out tracks, 'Let The Music Take Control', borrows at least a little from a certain re-mix by Timo Maas, before pealing off into an acidic build and turning into a funky trance wig out.
Having struck out into less predictable territory the next track, 'Drums of New York' avoids some of the more obvious uses of percussion that the trance and hard house massive have been appallingly appropriating recently and instead rides a furious series of builds underneath a simple, repetitive keyboard line.
With 'The Flow' finishing the set in a stomping 'Renegade Master' meets Scandinavian hard house stylee, the package barely stakes out new territory for either artist or audience, but it stamps over a multitude of 'Now That's What I Call Hard Progressive chill Out Trance '82' compilations. Faced with that option, you must buy this. It's your duty.
But you really should learn to avoid such situations.
